MacRumors

Viewers around the world are watching more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day, setting the online video service on the path to beat regular TV viewership, according to a report this week by The Wall Street Journal. The 1 billion hour milestone, which YouTube passed sometime late in 2016, is said to have been reached thanks to Google's "aggressive embrace of artificial intelligence to recommend videos."

Google started building and introducing the algorithms in 2012, and YouTube said that its 1 billion daily viewership hours represent a 10-fold increase in hours of video watched since 2012. In total, there are 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, which equates to 65 years of video every day. To get through all of that content, YouTube's algorithms give viewers a nudge of what to watch next on both desktop and mobile, growing the service's numbers year-over-year.

“The corpus of content continues to get richer and richer by the minute, and machine-learning algorithms do a better and better job of surfacing the content that an individual user likes,” YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said.

With 1 billion hours of YouTube videos being viewed daily, the company's worldwide viewership will soon eclipse traditional American broadcast television numbers. According to Nielsen data, Americans watch around 1.25 billion hours of live and recorded TV every day. But, thanks to the rise of cord-cutting services, that number has been "steadily dropping in recent years."

Because Google doesn't disclose YouTube's monetary performance, it's unclear how much the company is profiting off of its growing popularity. A report from 2015 suggested that YouTube made around $4 billion in 2014 "and roughly broke even." YouTube has begun initiating ways to profit more from its increasing viewership, including the launch of the premium, $9.99/month YouTube Red service, as well as reports that began last year of the company's plan to debut its own streaming TV subscription service.

YouTube is also tweaking and learning what works best for its users. Earlier this month, the company confirmed that it'll be doing way with unskippable 30-second advertisements in 2018 because it knows that it loses some viewers completely when such ads pop up in front of videos. In their place, it's expected that shorter, but still unskippable 6-second "bumper ads" will become the norm.

For its online TV service, which was referred to as "one of the online video giant’s biggest priorities" when news of it broke last year, YouTube is predicted to introduce a skinny bundle with the four major U.S. networks and a few other popular cable channels, all for less than $35/month. At the time, YouTube's efforts were compared to Apple's attempts to launch a cord-cutting package, but plans for such a skinny bundle service from Apple have fallen apart due to media companies wanting more money than Apple wanted to charge for the service.

YouTube has also pushed out a small update to its iOS app today that will ensure all links to any YouTube video consistently open up within the YouTube app instead of in a browser window, like they sometimes did in the Safari or Chrome apps. YouTube is available to download for free on the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

Google has revealed to the BBC that it will bring its Home smart connected speaker to the United Kingdom this spring. Rick Osterloh, Google's vice president of hardware, told BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones that he believes the Home's "AI skills and vast data" will give it the edge over rival Amazon Echo.

A Google spokesperson later confirmed to Engadget on Tuesday that the company's smart speaker would become available on the U.K market in the second quarter of this year.

Amazon's Echo range of speakers have been on sale in the U.K. and Germany since September 2016, while rumors of Apple's entry into the smart home speaker market have yet to be realized on either side of the Atlantic.

Amazon is building upon the Alexa voice-recognition technology found in its Echo range of speakers so that the virtual assistant can distinguish between individual users based on the sound of their voices.

According to anonymous sources who spoke to TIME, Amazon's feature would work by matching the person speaking to a pre-recorded voice sample, or "voice print", to verify the speaker's identity.

A primary account holder would be able to require a specific voice print to access certain commands. A user would, for example, be able to set it so that a parent's voice would be required to make a credit card purchase or turn on the coffee machine through the Echo.

Amazon has been developing the feature, internally called Voice ID, since at least the summer of 2015, according to people familiar with the company's Alexa strategy. The underlying technology is said to have been completed and just needs integrating into Echo speakers, however it's still unclear when that will happen.

The Voice ID technology would be a first in the smart speaker space and make Echo units easier to share between multiple people under one roof. Currently, Echo users can set up multiple profiles and jump between them, but the user must say "switch accounts" or use the Alexa app to do so. And as for credit card purchases, a four-digit authentication code must be said out loud to confirm them.

It's unknown at this point whether Voice ID will extend to the many Alexa-enabled third-party devices now available, or if it would be limited to Amazon's Echo speakers. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Alexa recently became capable of responding to 10,000 skills, according to Amazon. Skills are essentially third-party apps that you can interact with via voice, once they've been enabled. The 10,000th skill was Beat the Intro, a music game that tests users' knowledge and love of music.

AI assistants have become increasingly popular over the past few years, while Apple's Siri has remained largely unchanged over the past few iOS updates. Last May it was rumored that the company would launch an Echo-like speaker with Siri integration, enabling users to play music, get news headlines, and more, without needing to interact with their iPhone, but further details have been scant.

SoundCloud has introduced a new lower priced subscription plan to entice users to sign up to its music streaming service, less than a year after its paid membership scheme was launched (via The Verge).

The new SoundCloud Go budget tier costs $4.99 per month, half the price of the previous low cost subscription option that rolled out last March. Membership gives users access to over 120 million tracks, no ads, and the ability to save music offline on mobile.

The original $9.99 plan remains as SoundCloud Go+, which includes access to a wider selection of 150 million songs and excludes previews from the library. According to the German company, the Go+ plan will also include additional product features to be announced later this year.

The new budget $4.99 plan means SoundCloud now undercuts Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Google Play Music, all of whose options start at $9.99. SoundCloud will be hoping the new pricing tier turns more of its 175 million users into paying subscribers, although how many is unclear – the company has never released a figure for its paying user base.

SoundCloud Go and SoundCloud Go+ membership plans are available in the U.S., UK, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany, with some regional price differences.

Mozilla today announced it has acquired read-it-later app Pocket, which it says has 10 million unique monthly active users on iOS, Android, and the web. The app, formerly known as Read It Later, launched in 2007 and is integrated in services such as Flipboard and Twitter. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Pocket will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Mozilla Corporation and will become part of the Mozilla open source project, the company said. Pocket's core employees and technology will help accelerate its Context Graph initiative, while promoting the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content.

Mozilla CEO Chris Beard:

“We believe that the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content is key to keeping the internet healthy by fighting against the rising tide of centralization and walled gardens. Pocket provides people with the tools they need to engage with and share content on their own terms, independent of hardware platform or content silo, for a safer, more empowered and independent online experience.”

Mozilla and Pocket worked together to integrate the service within Firefox in 2015, and this acquisition will allow the teams to work more closely together.

Mozilla's acquisition follows in the footsteps of Instapaper, one of Pocket's biggest rivals, which was acquired by Pinterest in August 2016.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.2 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the third watchOS 3.2 beta and more than a month after the release of watchOS 3.1.3, the current public version of the operating system.

The watchOS 3.2 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update after installing the proper configuration profile on the iPhone. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone.

watchOS 3.2 includes a "Theater Mode" designed to let customers quickly mute the sound on the Apple Watch and disable Raise to Wake, preventing the screen from lighting up with arm movement.

Customers are still able to receive haptic feedback-based notifications, and information can be viewed by either tapping the screen or pressing down on the Digital Crown.

watchOS 3.2 also brings SiriKit to the Apple Watch, allowing customers to ask Siri to do things like send messages, send payments, book a ride, log a workout, make a call, or search through photos. SiriKit has been available on iOS devices since the release of iOS 10, but is new to the Apple Watch.

SanDisk today announced that its iXpand Flash Drive is now available in a larger 256GB storage capacity for $279.99, expanding upon existing 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities available for between $49.99 and $129.99.

The iXpand Flash Drive connects to the Lightning port on an iPhone or iPad to provide the device with up to 256GB of additional storage space through the SanDisk iXpand Drive app. It has a USB-A port with USB 3.0 speeds for quickly transferring files to and from another iOS device, Mac, or PC.

MacRumors reviewed the second-generation iXpand Flash Drive last year and noted that it was a worthwhile purchase for those who need expanded storage, although the new 256GB size is on the expensive side.

SanDisk also introduced its Connect Wireless Stick in a larger 256GB storage capacity for $279.99. The wireless flash drive enables wireless storage and transfer of files from one iPhone or iPad to another iOS device, Mac, or PC over a password-protected Wi-Fi network. It has a USB 2.0 port.

Both external storage solutions are available now at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H Photo Video, and select other retailers in the United States and elsewhere.

At Mobile World Congress today, enterprise application software company SAP gave more details about its partnership with Apple, which will result in the creation of a toolset that aims to help developers build "enterprise-grade" apps for iOS. Called the SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS, the tools will use Apple's programming language Swift to present developers and designers with a collection of pre-built UI components and provide easy access to iPhone features (Touch ID, location services, notifications, etc.) in order to "accelerate app development and increase adoption."

To further the partnership between the two companies, SAP Academy for iOS will be available to developers and include training courses and workshops that teach attendees what they need to know to build apps using the new SDK. The courses provided "will be updated regularly" as Apple and SAP integrate new technologies into the SDK and new roles are added into the program.

Susan Prescott, vice president of Product Marketing, Apple, said: “When we set out on this partnership with SAP, we knew we had an incredible opportunity to transform how people around the world work by combining the innovation and security of iOS with SAP’s leadership in enterprise software.

We’re already seeing the impact that the combination of iOS and SAP brings to businesses to enable better, more efficient and effective processes across industries. Now even more developers will be able to take advantage of the new SDK, and we can’t wait to see how they transform their businesses.”

The first iOS app created from the SAP Cloud Platform SDK aims to improve communication and collaboration within project teams on both iPhone and iPad. Called the "SAP Project Companion," the app was built for consultants and managers of professional services "who are typically on the go." It will debut on March 30, 2017 alongside the official launch of the full SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS.

Although the SDK has yet to officially launch, an early adopter program is said to have already seen success in a variety of enterprise environments. These include retailers like Burberry, foreign campuses like King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and interior/exterior design company FunderMax.

“The iOS SDK will help us compete with other universities by providing the best experience for both our students and professors in addition to a top-notch education,” said Abdulmajeed Serajuddin, the manager of IT enterprise applications at KAUST. “Innovapptive, an SAP partner, is working with us through all the critical steps of implementation.”

Apple has previously entered into an enterprise-focused partnership before with IBM, which saw the creation of a collection of "MobileFirst" apps that centered on industry-specific native programs built from the ground up for the iPhone and the iPad. The apps eventually expanded to cover the airline, vehicle transportation, retail, healthcare, and insurance industries.

T-Mobile today announced that, starting March 1, new and existing customers can activate three lines of T-Mobile ONE with unlimited data, talk, and text for $100 per month after bill credits. The plan usually costs $100 per month for two lines, and $140 per month for three lines, so the third line is essentially free.

T-Mobile is also offering an additional line for free to existing customers with two or more voice lines, including T-Mobile ONE and older Simple Choice plans. There are virtually no strings attached to the deal, which is likely an incentive to keep customers from switching to new unlimited data plans at AT&T and Verizon.

The offer is available for a limited time only, but T-Mobile said customers who take advantage of the promotion now will be able to keep the free third line for as long as they have qualifying service and remain in good standing, or until they make changes to their plan. Prices are based on AutoPay.

All Withings products will be rebranded under Nokia by the summer, according to Withings CEO Cédric Hutchings. The announcement was made on Sunday during Nokia's event at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.

Withings makes iOS-compatible smart connected home products as well as a range of health and fitness wearables. Nokia bought the French health tracking company last year for an estimated $192 million. The acquisition saw Withings' 200 employees integrate into Nokia Technologies when the deal went through in June.

As well as the rebranding, the Withings CEO said the company would release a redesigned Health Mate app later this year that will bring an "improved user experience" and new data sharing features. Nokia is also set to launch a new Patient Care program similar to Apple's Healthkit that will allow patients to share data medical doctors.

In related news, Nokia also announced a new modern variant of its original 3310 mobile phone, first launched back in September 2000. Made by HMD Global, which bought the right to make Nokia phones last year, the new version retains the same name – and even includes classic game Snake – but runs Nokia's more advanced Series 30+ software. It also features a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 2 megapixel camera, and a microSD slot.

The new 3310 supports Bluetooth and comes with Opera Mini installed for basic web surfing. Talk time is said to be 22 hours, but the big draw is likely to be the featurephone's 31-day standby time.

The Nokia 3310 will be available in a number of candy colors and should arrive later in the spring for the price of $52.

Amazon and Netflix yesterday collected the first Academy Awards for streaming services, sharing four gold statuettes between them at this year's Oscars.

Amazon Studios bagged a Best Actor trophy for Casey Affleck's portrayal of a grieving man in "Manchester by the Sea". Bought by Amazon for $10 million at the Sundance film festival, the movie also won Best Original Screenplay. It has earned $46.8 million at domestic theaters, and is set to appear later this year on Amazon's Prime Video service.

Netflix won Best Documentary in the short-subject category for 40-minute film "The White Helmets", which followed volunteer rescue workers in war-torn Syria. The Netflix Original was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel.

According to one former Wall Street analyst, Apple's first Academy Award is not too far away either. Venture capitalist and tech ponderer Gene Munster predicted on Friday that Apple will win an Oscar in five years.

"We think Apple will win an Oscar in the next five years," Munster wrote in a research note issued by his company, Loup Ventures. "That's how long it will take for Apple to scale its original content spend from less than $200 million today to $5-7 billion."

According to Munster, Apple's moves towards making original content to drive user engagement with its ecosystem will turn increasingly towards movies and TV series, as it aims to boost revenues to its Services division, which includes Apple Music and iTunes.

Apple has already unveiled plans to launch two unscripted series on Apple Music, "Planet of the Apps", which shares a format similar to talent-based reality show The Voice and Shark Tank, and "Carpool Karaoke", based on the popular James Corden segment from The Late Late Show. In addition, Apple is also working on "Vital Signs", a dark semi-autobiographical drama starring Dr. Dre, which will also be used to promote Apple Music.